Safety Coach
12 Minutes to Discovery
In the final days of December, many of your employees will attend workplace events and family gatherings where drinks will be served.
Share this simple reminder: Have fun, be safe.
Take this opportunity to review how impairment from alcohol and other drugs can affect performance on the job and behind the wheel. Learn why using two or more drugs at once, including alcohol, can amplify risks:
- Enroll in our NEW Polydrugs e-learning course. Discover what happens when different drugs combine into a potentially volatile mix. This free course takes about 12 minutes to complete. Look for “Polydrugs” under the Other E-Learning Courses section.
Then, watch this 30-second video from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration with your team, and work to dispel misconceptions about marijuana use and safety. Research shows marijuana impairs motor skills, including hand-eye-coordination, and impacts cognitive functions, such as attention span and the ability to identify visual and spatial relationships.
Get these free resources to raise awareness and boost your safety training efforts:
- Our Driving Concern: Use this Safety Huddle to lead a safety talk on impaired driving; download, print and display this free poster (or share digitally): Drive High – Get a DWI
- Texas Department of Transportation: Download videos and print materials from TxDOT’s Drive Sober/No Regrets holiday season safety campaign
- NHTSA: Use these ready-made social media assets and playbook guide to elevate the safety conversation on your channels
Impairment can prevent your coworkers from being at their best and impact your organization’s bottom line. Get free resources from the National Safety Council, and use this tool to calculate the real cost of substance use at your location.
Let merriment – not heartache – dominate this wonderful time of year.
Tailgate Talk
Embrace New, Rethink Old
A new year brings a new opportunity to double-down on our commitment to reducing traffic crashes and achieving our goal of zero traffic deaths. After several years of devastating trends in mobility safety, the good news is, we have new and existing strategies to help make sure everyone arrives safely when traveling.
One promising trend in 2022 that we hope to see more of in 2023 is fleet owners and managers leading on life-saving technologies. Consider this pilot program in New York City that will implement intelligent speed assistance. This will not only help improve the safety of vehicles currently on streets In New York, it can help demonstrate the success of the technology and inspire future adoption. Rethinking the design and visibility of a vehicle to get the job done, or even whether the job requires a vehicle at all, is another way to acknowledge the role vehicles play in safety.
Employers play an important role in encouraging safe travel outside of work as well; we encourage you to consider that what is old is new again. With activities like the ever-popular bike bus or extremely valuable walk audits, active transportation becomes the safe and fun option while also drawing attention to the safety needs of the community. Consider hosting or supporting community-led events and encouraging your employees to get more involved to address the historic rise of pedestrian and bicycle fatalities.
We all need to come together to play a role in reaching zero traffic deaths. Make 2023 a year of action. Embrace the new and rethink the old when it comes to your mobility safety strategy.